Standard caveat #1: the albums are ordered in the manner in which they made the best sense to us and there is no suggestion that the album at, for example, #113 is necessarily worse than the one at #12; it just looks best to us this way.

Standard caveat #2: this is not intended as a definitive summary of The Year In Music; the city of 2009 had as many differing routes as ever and this is simply the route which we took; a route which, as ever, we hope you will enjoy exploring and, with any luck, hearing.

Lena’s companion piece is currently in production and will appear once this list has been published in full. And this list will be published at a rate of one post per album, in ascending order, so will be completed as time and energy allow. Patience is always a virtue.